Returning Home
Haven't we wanted, all along, to try on boundlessness like mutable, starry clothes? This phrase from Mark Doty's poem, Nocturne in Black and Gold, comes to mind on return from Canyon de Chelly, where I had the privilege of spending a week with ten women– one of whom is a Dine (Navajo) guide. It was a poetry retreat.
The Underneath
The underneath —that was the first devil. It was always with me.
What is the underneath? This, I think, is the key to Marie Howe's poem. In the voice of Mary Magdalene, as she rambles through the poem citing obstructions– and ends up with the invisible, the underneath.
Busy-ness As An Occupation
This is the sixth obstacle to the creative pattern– (to doing what we are here to do)– in response to Marie Howe's poem in the voice of Mary Magdalene: Magdalene– The Seven Devils.
The beginning line of Marie Howe's poem is: The first was that I was very busy
Where does the time go? What happened? How did we get to this place of not having time? Was it yesterday? Ten years ago? Longer? Today? Now? What does it mean to say: I don't have any time? Who or what did you sell your time to?
I Am Different From You
This is the next essay in the series on Marie Howe's poem: Magdalene– The Seven Devils. Today we are going to explore how we fence ourselves off from others.
We set ourselves apart from others by saying, as Marie Howe states:
I am different from you: whatever happened to you could not happen to me, not like that.
Envy Disguised as Compassion
Now we come to the fourth devil in the exploration of obstacles to the creative pattern and Marie Howe's poem: Magdalene– The Seven Devils. It is: envy, disguised as compassion.
I have thought about this one a lot- it is the most difficult one for me to unwrap. I was struggling with how to approach it– so I put it down. It was a Saturday, and still dissatisfied with my attempts at writing about envy, I decided to take a break to run errands. I was listening to Moth Radio Hour on NPR in my car. They were featuring stories on coincidence– all kinds of wonderful stories from listeners.
One Devil at a Time
Marie Howe says:
The fifth was that I refused to consider the quality of life of the aphid, The aphid disgusted me.
We all have our aphids– the things that disgust us, that we refuse to consider. This is what aversion is: the impulse to turn away from something.
But how is this important to the creative pattern?
Fear: That I Might Make the Wrong Choice
Indecision is a kind of fear that can be paralyzing: Shall I do this or shall I do that? Fear is also a natural response to taking a risk- what have I gotten myself into now? (This is a recurring question for me!)
I was thinking just this when I was preparing for my exhibit, Another Night in the Ruins. After getting Galway Kinnell's permission to use his poem, I jumped in and invited sixteen poets and musicians to respond with a poem or music to one of my paintings. I had a vision of this culminating in a poetry reading and musical improvisation at the opening of the show at the gallery. What I hadn't taken into consideration was that although at this point the show was comfortably months in the future, I would need to have 16 paintings resolved enough to send digital images to these artists a couple months before the opening. Yikes! Did I make the wrong choice?
Casting Out Worry
I have been working on this lecture based on Marie Howe's poem,Magdalene– The Seven Devils. For now, I am taking one devil at a time, beginning with worry:
I ask myself, how much of my day has been captured by worry?
For example, when I was contemplating this poem as the subject for this lecture, I kept thinking about the last line:
Slide of class at La Romita School of Art, Italy
You can download a pdf with student examples of work and a registration form for the workshop at La Romita School of Art, Italy here: http://www.lauriedoctor.com/workshops/2014/catchingsong_final.pdf
http://www.lauriedoctor.com/workshops/2014/Registration_Form.pdf
Catching Song: Teaching in Italy this Summer
I was recently listening to an interview with the musician, Bobby McFerrin where he describes improvisation as movement, as catching song. What does it mean to catch a song? It implies that the song, our creation, is already here– and so part of our work as artists is to listen, to observe, and improvise from our experience. At La Romita, we will develop these skills through drawing, writing and watercolor techniques– and taking daily sketching trips into the small Umbrian hill towns. In the afternoons we return to La Romita for time in the workshop.